1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a control device for an electronic appliance and a control method of the electronic appliance. More particularly, it relates to a control device for an electronic appliance and a control method of the electronic appliance in which the electronic appliance to be controlled from a remote area with a remote controller is controlled without using any remote controller.
2. Description of the Related Art
Electronic appliances such as television receiver, audio system and air conditioner presently used are usually controlled by touching an operation button of a main body or by using a remote controller (hereinafter referred to as the RC). In the former case, an operator has to come close to the main body of the electronic appliance as a control target. When the electronic appliance is distant from the operator, the control is very laborious. This problem is solved using the RC as in the latter case.
Once the RC is taken by hand, the apparatus can be controlled without moving. However, if the RC is not near to the operator, the operator has to find out a place where the RC is present, and fetch the RC. However, in a case where the apparatus is not continuously controlled and it is desired to readily control any one operation, for example, in a case where a power supply only is turned on first of all, the operator feels troublesome. Furthermore, there often occurs a situation in which the use of the RC is desired but the RC is not found.
To solve such a problem, a method of controlling the electronic appliance with a sound which can be emitted by a person, for example, a clapping sound without using any remote operation device such as the RC has been disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Nos. 59-156024, 01-137300 and 2006-107452.
To control the electronic appliance with the clapping sound or the like, erroneous operations due to a surrounding noise and an unexpectedly emitted sound need to be reduced. In the above prior-art documents, to improve a resistance to the surrounding noise and the unexpectedly emitted sound, the number of clapping sounds is increased, or it is confirmed that another sound is not generated before or after a series of clapping sounds. A clapping pattern for the control of the electronic appliance is beforehand registered for each user.
However, in a case where the electronic appliance is controlled by the plurality of clapping sounds, intervals between the generated clapping sounds depend on the user, and hence the number of the clapping sounds is not correctly recognized, which might cause the erroneous operation. Furthermore, even in the case of the same user, the clapping sounds at this time might be different from the beforehand registered clapping pattern, with the result that the number of the clapping sounds might be incorrectly recognized.